Today we are talking about BURNOUT. I’m sure I’ve said this word a million times, but now that I’m aware of what it REALLY is, my ears have become really sensitive to it.
I feel like I hear it EVERYWHERE, and for me, this word has become a sort of CRAVING. It’s a word that we SAY, thinking this just is a supernatural force. Like it’s a THING that if we do too much, it’s just inevitable.
There’s a lot of talk about burnout in the wellness industry. I’m burned out by eating the same thing every day.
People always trip me up with this one because I never once tell anyone to eat chicken all day every day. I’m always like, then don’t eat chicken today?? You really don’t have to do that!
Parents saying they don’t want their kids to get too burned out on their sport. I have LOTS of thoughts about this.
Now that I have been thinking about it, I notice it EVERYWHERE.
Just recently, my sister in law said that she was SO burned out that she needed a vacation, after she literally came back from vacation 3 weeks earlier.
I told her, ‘Sounds like the only vacation you need is a vacation from thinking you constantly need to escape your life and go on vacation’. She didn’t love that. But I said it because I meant it — and because it’s something I think a lot of us fall into, myself included.
We treat burnout like something that will go away if we just rest or take a break. And while rest is important, sometimes burnout has less to do with what we’re doing and more to do with how we’re thinking about what we’re doing. And what we then do with those thoughts.
Notice the things that people get burned out on. It’s usually the things you must do consistently to have results. Nobody is over here BURNED OUT on watching tv or eating ice cream.
Today, we’re talking about burnout. Not just stress. Not just being tired. But that full-on feeling that makes you want to quit everything and run away.
I may have made it sound so far like this is a BAD thing and like you SHOULDN’T feel this way, but that is not the point. I want us to reframe how we see it; it’s not a period and then the solution is to run away or quit. It is a FEELING and just like all feelings, it’s a message that we should receive and work through what’s going on.
What is burnout?
Physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion that is followed by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward yourself, the thing you are doing, and others. It results from performing at a high level until stress, especially from extreme and prolonged physical or mental exertion, takes its toll.
This is a definition I pulled from the internet, and I actually have a few problems with it. But you get the idea. You are physically, emotionally and mentally EXHAUSTED from doing something, so now you want to quit.
You are feeling:
- Unmotivated—even for things you care about
- Mental fog and emotional flatness
- Everything feels hard, even simple tasks
- Resentment or detachment
- Going through the motions
I think we can probably ALL relate to this. But what I want to work through today is to learn how to catch yourself BEFORE you get to THIS point, and learn how to pull out of this. The goal isn’t to avoid it forever, but to recognize the signs early and know how to respond before it takes you out of the game completely.
Why burnout happens
Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is stress. We always have to remember that the THING causing us stress isn’t inherently the problem. So when you are FEELING burned out, we don’t want to shut down the conversation. That thing is making me burned out. We want to remember that whatever that thing IS an inanimate object, and we are not a victim to that thing. The point is not to say that thing is bad and then run away. We want to dig in and solve our problem.
Let’s take a second to think about the things that you feel burned out about. Pick out just one thing that you 100% need a break from ASAP.
Ok, now we are going to talk about WHY this feeling happens. Warning: so much of this is going to sound familiar because we talk about them a lot here.
- There is a mismatch of effort and return (I SHOULD be getting BLANK from the amount of effort that I have been putting in)
- Constant output without emotional refueling (walking around trying to fill up everyone else’s cup without filling up YOUR OWN too)
- Perfectionism or unrealistic expectations (Not understanding that really good work is built ON mistakes; if you are doing things perfectly all of the time, you absolutely are NOT doing what you need to do to get better. Growth is much messier than perfection)
- Not allowing rest without guilt
- White-knuckling through everything (I’m doing this thing that I hate so much to get to the end. That grip is going to give out. You aren’t doing the mindset work that leads to SUSTAINING the thing that you are doing)
- Living out of alignment with what you actually need
Burnout isn’t happening because you’ve run out of fuel, steam, or ability. Or because it has suddenly become too hard. It’s happening because somewhere in your mind you’ve set an endpoint. You’ve been trying to race to ‘done.’ And when you don’t hit that finish line fast enough, you start telling yourself: I can’t keep going. This isn’t for me.
But I want you to receive this emotional message and reframe how you are looking at this thing. There is no END — you’ve just forgotten that this is a journey that you will always be on.
There is no finish line.
You haven’t burned out. You just need to make some adjustments (most of them mental ones) and learn to embrace this thing as a PROCESS.
How to overcome burnout
Micro-rest and boundaries
You don’t need a full vacation to recover. You need better micro-moments.
Where can you take 5 minutes for quiet or stillness today? Where can you pull yourself back into the present and just ENJOY being in the moment and deciding the next right step?
Set boundaries with your time, your energy, and your expectations. Plan ahead, sure. But be where your feet are and just keep doing the next best thing, followed by a mini celebration of doing the thing that you set out to do.
Reconnection to purpose
Burnout often happens when you lose sight of why something matters. To combat this, revisit why you started. Remind yourself what it’s for.
Remind yourself WHO you are. You are someone that does the hard thing because you are capable, and you honor your abilities and your potential. You are someone who makes mistakes, then grows from them. Someone who is not a victim to life but empowered in your personal autonomy and ability to CHOOSE. Who honors the life that you have been given and accepts that life will be life, there will be mistakes. But overall, it’s a wonderful life and we are lucky to be here and experience it all.
Simplify to sustain
We complicate our own lives sometimes a lot. So go back to the basics.
I actually see this with exercise a lot. Someone that isn’t doing anything suddenly jumping into Beast Master 10000 training. I went from a sedentary lifestyle to working out 2 hours a day and I’m BURNED OUT.
You’re not burned out — you’re exhausted from the 0-1000 effort.
It’s OK to simplify and go back to the 3 times per week of lifting that I recommend here. Lol. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You can walk, take a rest day, and get back to SOMETHING.
Scaling back doesn’t mean quitting — it means remembering to take small steps. It means you remember you can’t RACE your way to a different life. There are so many things that happen in the small steps that you completely miss if you skip over them.
Don’t forget the middle. That is truly where the magic happens.
Let Go of Perfectionism
It does NOT exist. I really cannot tell you this enough times. Perfection is an illusion. You will wear your damn self out reworking things over and over and over, only to look up to see your exhaustive efforts have kept you in the exact same place.
Stop trying to be perfect at something that you will never have full clarity on until you get to the next step. What do I mean? If you are on THIS SIDE of something, you can only see it from this side. And there is another angle that you can’t see from this side.
Sometimes you need to do it “good enough” and move past this point and you will then see it from another angle. You can fix it then. But you USUALLY see that you did that thing good enough that it moved the needle, and you are more interested in moving the needle than doing something perfectly over and over again.
Good enough will always get you further than burnout. Because remember part of burn out is the mis-match in effort given to distance traveled. And perfectionists give a LOT of effort and don’t travel very far.
Shift the mindset
In all honesty, you don’t burn out from things you love.
You burn out when you’re doing things with the wrong mindset, when you are doing things that you don’t love. When you are feeling burned out, learn to ask yourself: Is this really burnout? Or is it boredom, frustration, or disconnection?
Is it boredom?
If you are bored of eating grilled chicken every day, then stop doing that. I don’t even remember the last time that was on a meal prep. Find another thing to eat that will still move the needle toward YOUR goal.
If you are burned out on eggs, remind yourself that nobody is forcing you to eat nature’s perfect nutrition nuggets. You don’t HAVE to eat eggs. You are a grown up. But also ask yourself if we can eat eggs MOST days and then make a non egg recipe other days. The story isn’t EGGS ARE BORING — the story is: I can bring in some variety with one of the other recipes. Be VERY CAREFUL about labeling nutritious food as the problem. The problem isn’t the food itself, but that you were feeling like you HAD to eat it. Again, you don’t HAVE to eat nutritious food — you GET to.
If I don’t LOVE this thing, ask yourself WHY? What don’t I LOVE about it? How can I reframe how I think about this thing, so that I can find an appreciation in it?
Is it FRUSTRATION?
Do you need to manage your expectations? Perhaps you need to stop sabotaging all of your hard work so you can move the needle versus work really hard to stay in the same place.
Are you DISCONNECTED from why you are doing this thing to begin with?
This usually happens when you have attached yourself to the end product or THING versus becoming the person who does the thing. Creating a different narrative for yourself, building REAL confidence. I am someone who continues to show up and do hard things. I identify as someone who has the abilities to accomplish wonderful things.
Feeling burned out doesn’t mean you’re failing
Or that you need to jump ship and find a less burn-outy plan. It means something needs to shift WITHIN you.
It’s simply an emotional message telling you that something needs to shift within you. Remember, you don’t burn out from doing too much — you burn out when you lose your alignment and it starts to feel like none of it matters. There is no finish line to race toward, and you can’t white-knuckle your way to a different life.
True growth happens when you simplify, let go of the illusion of perfection, and embrace the messy middle where the magic actually happens. You get to choose your path, honor your potential, and show up for yourself with clarity and energy that feels good. Stop waiting for a vacation to rescue you from your life—let’s fix the mindset that’s draining you. Schedule your discovery call and join MYLF Coaching today, and let’s start building a sustainable, powerful routine that you actually love.
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